Restaurants Can Now Serve Liquor With Carry Out Meals

Ohio restaurants have not been able to serve mixed drinks and straight liquors since the state order that closed dine-in services took effect last month. Now, the state is making a change to its rules that will allow restaurants to serve those drinks along with take-out meals.

“You will be able to get up to two drinks that will be pre-packaged. You cannot open them until you get home. But you can get up to two drinks per order," DeWine says.

Lt. Governor Jon Husted says the change came because state leaders were listening to businesses who had asked for it.

All of the usual taxes on those drinks will still apply. These new rules will apply as long as the state’s closure of restaurants due to coronavirus continues. Liquor sales in stores set a record in the week after the state closed bars and in-restaurant dining last month.

Some Ohio breweries have switched from producing alcohol to making hand sanitizer. Other companies are making or recycling medical grade masks needed by doctors and nurses on the front lines, and some have donated medical supplies. But state leaders are not just relying on the state’s businesses to meet those demands.

All bars in Ohio are closed, and all restaurants that are open are carryout only because of concerns about the spread of coronavirus. And Gov. Mike DeWine said another key shutdown order will be coming soon.

There are so many coronavirus patients being treated by medical professionals in New York that makeshift tents have been turned into hospitals. Ohio's leaders say they are planning ahead but aren’t looking to do something similar here.

Gov. Mike DeWine says the state is limiting prescriptions of two drugs used for malaria and rheumatoid arthritis, after interest in those drugs spiked when President Trump tweeted out that they could be used to treat COVID-19.